Of all the strange things that could possibly happen, who would have
thought that Adam Sandler actually acting was one of them? Isn't this
one of the signs of the apocalypse? Sandler is the man responsible for
lowering the IQ of the moviegoing audience with his formula driven so-called
comedies (recent examples include Mr. Deeds
and Little Nicky). His minions
include Rob Schneider, who also releases similar films. He is like a plague
upon movie theaters, yet people still fork over millions to watch his
films. Now, given a chance to be in a serious film, Sandler shows that
he is capable of more. His role in Punch-Drunk Love works because
of auteur Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia,
Boogie Nights). Anderson takes the generic Sandler movie role and
upends it, twisting towards his own unique vision. He starts with the
typical Sandler character, an ordinary, almost shy guy with a repressed
sense of rage. Then, he forgoes the lame voices and all of the stupid
jokes and tired situations that occur in Sandler films. Anderson takes
the risky elements of this character, the rage, and runs with it. So now,
Sandler appears less harmless and actually dangerous. Sandler is Barry
Egan, small business owner and harried brother to seven sisters.

Punch-Drunk Love is a strange romantic comedy done in the manner
that only Anderson could conceive. It goes in all sorts of bizarre directions,
with an overpowering sense of suffocation. Barry feels suffocated by everything
around him, his job, his life, and especially his sisters. They nag him
and are constantly checking in on him, and Barry feels that he has no
control of his life. This feeling slowly builds up inside him until he
releases it, with typically violent results. He even confides to a brother-in-law
that he believes that something is wrong with him, but he doesn't know
what. Barry is truly a strange person. He is smart enough to figure out
a loophole in a frozen foods frequent flier miles program (based on actual
events) but dumb enough to give all his information to a phone-sex operator
he calls when he wanted company. The latter event comes back to haunt
him, interfering with a new relationship with Lena (Emily Watson, Red
Dragon, Gosford Park).
He is fascinated with a discarded harmonium and wears an electric blue
suit he bought just for the heck of it for days on end.

Lena is strange only in that she doesn't seem to mind any of Barry's
quirks. She actively pursues him despite all his weirdness, which only
increases at they get closer. Watching Punch-Drunk Love is like
watching a noose slowly tightening. Try as he may, Barry cannot focus
exclusively on getting to know Lena. Something always interferes. His
sisters are still nag him for whatever, and any little thing can set off
his temper. Worse, the people from the phone sex line are trying to extort
money from him. There is a lot less going on than there was in Magnolia,
but because this is Anderson and the Barry character is so off-kilter,
there is no predicting where the story is going to go so it keenly holds
the interest of the audience. To keep this claustrophobic atmosphere,
Anderson piles on the events, having one happen after another. He effectively
uses Jon Brion's (Magnolia, Hard
Eight) cacophonous score, which has everything from symphonic music
to noise to add a frenetic pacing to the movie. Above all, it is Sandler,
whose amazing performance, paradoxically, would not be as strong if he
wasn't already known for his idiotic movies.